The present invention relates to the field of data validation and, more particularly, to utilizing a multi-pass technique to optimize the validation of XML documents.
The use of the Internet to conduct data transactions is becoming a standard practice. This is particularly true for businesses who rely solely on e-commerce as well as large corporations whose geographically diverse components need to share information. With the diverse amount of data and transactions that occur, standardization is a key element to ensure data integrity. Use of the extensible markup language (XML) is a popular means for standardizing data transactions. XML permits data structures to be defined and utilized within markup documents. Key information for e-commerce is often conveyed within these data structures. For example, purchase order (PO) information is often conveyed within a purchase order XML data structure.
Using a standardized language like XML does not single-handedly ensure data integrity. The data contained within the XML document must also be structurally valid, which means that the formats of the data structures of an XML document must conform to an agreed upon standard of an XML document sender and an XML document recipient.
Conventionally, XML parsers have been the traditional way to validate and report errors in XML data. Conventional XML parsers are structured for a single pass validation, where a most detailed level of processing, needed for providing a most detailed report possible is always invoked. Further, often redundant XML parsers are utilized by various networking components, where later XML parsers repeat validations previously performed by other XML parsers. XML files can be quite large, and the processing overhead for single pass validation can be significant.